LOS ANGELES — If Ed Orgeron weren't a serious candidate to become the permanent head coach at Southern California Saturday morning, he might very well be now.

After a white-knuckle 20-17 upset of No. 5 Stanford before a sellout crowd of 93,607, both Orgeron, who replaced the fired Lane Kiffin on an interim basis five games into the season, and his players were calling it one of the most memorable Trojan Saturdays they could remember.

And it was Orgeron, as much as any of his players, who made it happen.

With just over three minutes to go in a 17-17, defense-dominated game, Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan threw an interception, his second of the game, to Trojans safety Su'a Cravens at the USC 44-yard line.

The Trojans ran three plays and were faced with a fourth-and-2 at the Stanford 48-yard line with 1:23 left. The usual decision: Punt. Play defense. Get it to overtime.

But the entire Trojan team – offense, defense, subs – gathered around Orgeron during a timeout, and there was an electric feeling in the stadium like something unusual was about to happen.

Then the Trojans offense came out, lined up and quarterback Cody Kessler hit wide receiver Marqise Lee over the middle for a 13-yard gain.

Six plays later, Andre Heidari nailed a 47-yard field goal – USC's only points of the second half – and the stunning upset was complete.

It was the kind of decision Pete Carroll would have made back in the USC dynasty days.

"I knew I was taking a chance," Orgeron said after the game, and after a wild scene on the field that was stormed by many of the fans when the clock ran out. "But I looked in the eyes of those guys and I knew they wanted a chance to win the game. Obviously if we didn't make it, they could have gone down and kicked a field goal and won. I understood that. But I had a gut belief."

One wonders if USC athletic director Pat Haden now has a gut belief about what Orgeron, the gravelly-voiced 52-year-old, might bring to the table long term.

Southern California Trojans coach Ed Orgeron celebrates with fans at the end of the game against the Stanford Cardinal at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.(Photo: Kirby Lee, USA TODAY Sports)

USC has won five of the six games since Orgeron took over and is now 8-3, 5-2 in the Pac-12 South, tied with UCLA and a game back of Arizona State. The Trojans are at Colorado next week and will play UCLA, perhaps with a berth in the Pac-12 title game on the line, in the Coliseum on Nov. 30.

"There are going to be decisions made," Orgeron said. "That's totally out of my hands. I will say this I think everything happens for a reason. What that plan is, I don't know."

The crowd that stormed the field was showering Orgeron with love.

"I have a great relationship with the fans," he said. "I've been here since 1998."

The scene was such pandemonium that Stanford coach David Shaw never could find Orgeron.

"I want to congratulate him," Shaw said. "I wanted to do it face to face, but I'll send him a note later."

Haden doesn't need to waste time asking Kessler what he thinks of Orgeron as a head coach.

"Coach O is very unique," said Kessler, who shined in this game, completing 25 of 37 passes for 288 yards and a touchdown. "There's no one else in the country like him. I speak for the whole team. We absolutely love him. He's amazing. We want to run through a brick wall for him."

They kind of did, holding their own against Stanford's stellar offensive and defensive lines throughout the course of the game.

USC controlled the game in the first half, taking a 17-10 lead to the locker room after having outgained the Cardinal 181-147 in the first half.

Stanford, fourth in the latest BCS ratings, had problems moving the ball in the first half but marched down the field on its first possession of the second half on a vintage Cardinal 10-play, 92-yard drive. It was capped by an 18-yard touchdown run by Tyler Gaffney that lifted Stanford into a 17-17 tie.

But neither team could sustain momentum the rest of the way, trading turnovers, then punts, until Orgeron's roll of the dice.

"It was his call, his decision, but he could tell we were saying, 'Come on, we can do this,'" Kessler said. "We knew on third-and-short and fourth-and-short that Marqise was getting one-on-one coverage by the nickel guy. And he was playing him to the outside. So I just threw it to the inside and Marqise got it."

Stanford, which dominated then-No. 2 Oregon for three quarters before holding on for a 26-20 victory nine days earlier, is 8-2, 6-2 in the Pac-12 North and surrendered first place in the division back to Oregon. Stanford plays Cal next week and then Notre Dame on Nov. 30. Oregon has Arizona and Oregon State left.

"November in this conference, there's no comparison to any other conference in the country," Shaw said. "People can say what they want to say but it's not even close. To go back-to-back-back and play tough games like UCLA and Oregon State and Oregon and USC. It's tough. We were able to do it last year ... We couldn't get it done today."

Heidari was an unlikely hero. He has had a tough year, coming into the game having missed seven of 18 field goal attempts, including two in a 10-7 loss to Washington State.

"It was really fun," he said of his opportunity. "That's what kickers live for – competition, and game-winning field goals."

And so, about six weeks (and five victories) since they fired a coach, the Trojans were ecstatic like in the old days.

"This is definitely the most electrifying game I've played in at the Coliseum in my career," said junior safety Dion Bailey.

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